‘Embezzlement of funds in 13 govt offices’

Panaji: The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for the year ended March 2018 has revealed that instances of misappropriation/suspected misappropriation of government funds to the tune of Rs 11.60 lakh have been detected in 13 state government offices that come under the revenue, registration and transport departments. The CAG report has also disclosed that in two offices, funds were irregularly retained in the custody of office staff for periods ranging from three days to 247 days instead of being deposited in the treasury the next day.

Further, it has also stated that in seven offices, cash
books were not written for part of the period under audit, which indicates that
the supervisory officers did not exercise the necessary due diligence in
checking and certifying the cash book entries, which allowed the irregularities
to remain undetected. The report says that the internal audit wing of the state
government did not conduct any audit of these seven offices and in two cases it
did conduct an internal audit but failed to detect misappropriation of the
funds.

As per the findings, the audit of 13 offices detected
instances of misappropriation of government funds. The offices include
directorate of transport, additional director of transport (enforcement),
Margao; Mamlatdar, Salcete; Sub divisional office, Margao; Collectorate, North
Goa; Collectorate, South Goa; Mamlatdar, Bardez; Civil Registrar cum Sub
Registrar (CRSR) office, Dharbandora and Quepem. Misappropriation was noticed
in these offices and the scope of audit relating to verification of cash
receipts/remittances and other related records was extended beyond the selected
month.

In four offices that include Collectorate, North Goa;
Collectorate, South Goa; Mamlatdar, Salcete and CRSR Quepem, instances of
misappropriation of government funds through deletion of receipts/tampering of
receipts was detected.

The CAG report points out to suspected misappropriation
of government funds in three offices – Mamlatdar, Bardez; Sub divisional office
Margao and CRSR Bardez – through short remittances, retention of government
money in two offices, which include directorate of transport and CRSR
Dharbandora, and deletion of receipts of higher amounts and subsequent re-issue
of receipts of lower amounts in the office of ADT (enforcement), Margao.